Hon. James Wilson at Reading, Penna

STOP

Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in the World

This article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in
the world by JSTOR.

Known as the Early Journal Content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other
writings published in more than 200 of the oldest leading academic journals. The works date from the
mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.

We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this
resource exists. People may post this content online or redistribute in any way for non-commercial
purposes.

Read more about Early Journal Content at http://about.jstor.org/participate-jstor/individuals/early-
journal-content .

JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary source objects. JSTOR helps people
discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching
platform, and preserves this content for future generations. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit
organization that also includes Ithaka S+R and Portico. For more information about JSTOR, please
contact support@jstor.org.

48 Hon. James Wilson at Reading, Penna.

HON. JAMBS WILSON AT BEADING, PENNA.

BY LOUIS RICHARDS, ESQ.

With relation to James Wilson, signer of the Declaration
of Independence, I have noted a few facts concerning his
temporary residence in Reading, prior to the Revolutionary
War, he having been at that period a practitioner for several
years at the Berks County Bar. The date of Mr. Wilson's
admission to the Philadelphia Bar is set down as 1767.
There were at that time but eight counties in Pennsylvania,
and the members of the Colonial Bar practiced in most of
them, locating permanently in one or the other from time
to time as circumstances warranted. Wilson came to
Berks County probably soon after his entrance upon the
profession. The date of his admission here is not now
ascertainable. The records show that in 1772 he moved
for the admission of Peter Zachary Lloyd. He married
Rachel, daughter of William Bird of Berks County, the
latter having died in 1762, intestate, leaving a very large
estate, consisting principally of mills, forges, and extensive
tracts of land in Amity, Union, Robeson, and Heidelberg
townships, including the seats of iron industry subsequently
known as Birdsboro and Hopewell. Bird's widow, Bridget
(daughter of Marcus and Margaret Hulings), married John
Patton, also a considerable landowner and pioneer iron
manufacturer. In the proceedings in partition upon Wil-
liam Bird's estate in 1763, the names of his children are
given as Mark, Rebecca (wife of Peter Turner, Jr., merchant
of Philadelphia), Rachel, Mary, William, and James. The
four last mentioned were then minors under the age of
fourteen years, for whom Thomas Rutter and William May-
bury were appointed guardians. The real estate of Mr.
Bird was valued at £12,939, 10 shillings, at which sum it
was accepted by Mark the eldest son and co-administrator

Hon. James Wilson at Beading, Penna. 49

with his mother Bridget Patton. The net balance of the
personal estate was £8574, 7 shillings, 11 pence. In 1764,
George Ross, Jr., having married Mary Bird, was appointed
her guardian. James Bird died in 1780, in his twenty-first
year. William Bird married, 1778, Juliana Wood.

How long Mr. Wilson remained a resident of Berks
County is not known ; eventually he removed to Carlisle,
where he had attained professional eminence at the out-
break of the Revolution, with the events of which his name
is so conspicuously connected. By his wife Rachel he had
six children. Mrs. Wilson died in 1786 in Philadelphia,
where the family then permanently resided, and it was
beside her remains in Christ Church yard that those of her
distinguished husband were reinterred, at the conclusion of
the deeply interesting public ceremonies, on November
22nd last. Mr. Wilson's second wife Hannah, a daughter
of Ellis Gray of Boston, surviving him,married Dr. Thomas
Bartlett and died in England in 1807.

Mark Bird married, 1763, Mary Ross. He continued on
an extensive scale the iron industry founded by his father,
but failure in his enterprises resulted in the forced sale of
his estate, and in the course of successive changes in title
his brother-in-law, James Wilson, became in 1794 its pos-
sessor. He held it but two years, disposing of it in 1796.
During this period he was a resident of Philadelphia and a
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and it
is not presumable that he was actively engaged in the pur-
suits of an iron manufacturer. It is probable that his
ownership was but an expedient to preserve the pecuniary
interests of his wife and brother-in-law. That the invest-
ment was unfortunate to Mr. Wilson financially is matter
of record, his estate being involved in litigation on account
of it for some years after his death, which occurred in 1798.

Of Mr. Wilson's professional career in Berks County

there are no traditions whatever. Meagre indeed at this

day are the tracings of the professional lives and work of

any of the great lawyers of the Colonial period. Of the

vol. xxxi. — 4

50 Hon. James Wilson at Reading, Penna.

breadth of his legal attainments, the volumes of his lectures
before the law students of the college of Philadelphia con-
stitute, independently of his judicial opinions, an enduring
monument.

An incident of the introductory lecture of this course
delivered on December 15, 1790, comes unexpectedly into
my view among the manuscripts of Mr. Charles Evans, long
a leading lawyer of Reading, who died in 1847, leaving his
adopted city under an enduring debt of gratitude by his
beneficence in the foundation and endowment of the beau-
tiful cemetery which bears his name. Mr. Evans was a
native of Philadelphia, of Quaker ancestry; studied law
with Benjamin Chew, Attorney General and Chief Justice
under the provincial government, was admitted to the Phil-
adelphia Bar in 1791, and the same year began the practice
of the law at Reading, where he continued to reside until
his death. In the course of a public address delivered here
about 1840, upon the anniversary of the birthday of "Wash-
ington, he made reference to the introductory lecture of
Mr. Wilson, at which he was present as one of the law
students, in the following terms :

"In the winter of 1790, and while the President of the
United States resided in Philadelphia, the distinguished
professor ("Wilson) and his class were honored with the pres-
ence of General Washington. On that memorable occasion
our learned preceptor, after passing a well merited eulogium
upon the ladies, paid the General a highly wrought and ele-
gant compliment, which I hope it will not be deemed amiss
to recite in this connection :

4 In the European Temple of Fame,' said he, ' William
Penn is placed by the side of Lycurgus. Will America re-
fuse a Temple to her patriots and her heroes ? No, she will
not. The glorious dome already rises ; the architecture is of
the neatest and chastest order. Its dimensions are spacious ;
its proportions elegant and correct. In its front a number
of niches are formed. In some of them Statues are placed.
On the left hand of the portal are the names and figures of

Hon. James Wilson at Beading, Penna. 51

Warren, Montgomery, Mercer. On the right hand are the
names and figures of Calvert, Penn, Franklin. In the mid-
dle is a niche of larger size, and decorated with peculiar
ornament. On the left side of it are sculptured the trophies
of War ; on the right the more precious emhlems of Peace.
Above is represented the rising glory of the United States.
It is without a statue and without a name. Beneath it in
letters very legible are the words: For the most worthy.
By the enraptured voice of grateful America, with the con-
senting plaudits of an admiring world, the designation is
unanimously made. Late — very late may the niche be
filled ! '

" The feelings of sensibility with which this graceful and
eloquent compliment was received by the audience — the
high sense of the exalted services — the aptitude of the well-
merited eulogium — the presence of the great Patriot, Sol-
dier and Statesman — his acknowledged elevation of mind —
his distinguished military and civic talent and private
worth — excited and electrified the audience, and created
emotions on the well-remembered occasion which it is much
easier to conceive than describe. The large and brilliant
assemblage of Fashion and Beauty — the august figure of the
Venerable Patriot — the appropriate and well-timed compli-
ment, and the strong and vivid impression of his exalted
and matchless character animated every individual present
with enthusiastic feelings of admiration, regard and affec-
tion for the tried Friend and Father of his Country."

In reading these heroic outbursts of patriotic fervor, so
characteristic in their tenor of the orators of a by-gone time,
it would be difficult to decide between the relative eulogistic
gifts of the lecturer of 1790, and those of his admiring stu-
dent at the interval of half a century later. As the pane-
gyric was pronounced in the presence of both Houses of
Congress, and of the Governor and members of the Pennsyl-
vania Legislature, together with many other personages of
distinction, it may well be imagined that the occasion was a
more trying one to the Father of his Country than many of

52 Hon. James Wilson at Reading, Penna.

the battles he had waged in her cause. Judge Wilson had
but the year previous been appointed by him to the Federal
Supreme Bench. I hope it will not be invidious merely to
suggest that the eulogium probably lost nothing of the
warmth of its coloring from that fact.